Friday, August 31, 2012

Russell Clarke self portrait from the posthumously released The drawings of Russell Clark.

Last Year Wellington cartoonist Brent Willis discovered a comic featured in the Nov 12, 1954 edition of the N.Z. Listener, by New Zealand Illustrator Russell Clark in the archives of the Parliament Library (featured here). While I've found no evidence of other sequential work by Clark his prolific output featured in many New Zealand publications of the early to mid twentieth century with his illustrations adorning magazines, school journals, broadsheets and many books. The illustrations featured below are from an edition of Reed's Junior Library written by John L. Ewing and published in 1938 by A. H. & A. W. Reed.

Listen to a three minute clip from 1955 of Russell Clarke talking about his education and early inspiration in art here.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Two page comic by Russell Clark and 'Augustus' from the N.Z. Listener Nov 12, 1954Special Thanks to Brent Willis for Scans

From an early age Russell Clark (1905-1966) showed and interest and ability in art and with his parents encouragement he attended evening classes at the Canterbury College School of Art in 1922 before switching to day classes from 1923-1928. During this time he also joined the staff as a part-time member and began exhibiting locally and elsewhere in New Zealand. An avid painter, sculptor and illustrator, Clark was extremely prolific over the course his life, he encouraged his students to take pencil and sketchbook with them everywhere and to never let a day go by without sketching something or someone.